"D" the Ranter is Colorado's #1 Multi-sport MLBlogger. The Rant is written from a fan's perspective and you can count on "D" to tell you exactly how it is. Tried and Tested…There's a reason the Rant kicks ass in Colorado.

Tagged: Hot Stove

What a day. I’m still feeling the effects of this flu and woke up this morning about 6am with my back aching from sleeping the previous twenty hours. The “feeling like sh-it” hits in waves and today it’s about 50/50.

Anyways I checked my email this morning and there was an email from Tom Reese of HotStove.com. He was sending out a question to Rockies Bloggers regarding Jason Marquis.

The question was:

Did the Rockies make a mistake in allowing Jason Marquis to leave via free agency? The club doesn’t seem to have an heir apparent ready to take his spot in the rotation.

Great question. I was foggy headed when I replied with my answer but to my surprise it was printed at along with another Rockies Blogger that I’ve never heard of.

Kind of neat to be quoted talking about your favorite sport. Believe me I’m not bragging just sharing 🙂

I’ll know I’ve made it when Alana Rizzo from FSN is kind enough to interview me 🙂

(Photo by Captain_Chase)

On a different note, Krista and I have been known to show Hunter and Mylee music videos from the 80’s. We do this so they understand exactly why we looked like we did back then and because every now and then you just need a good laugh.

A few weeks ago we showed them Twisted Sisters video of “We’re not gonna take it” and they fell in love with it. After watching it at least a hundred times the kids decided they wanted to try and copy the video.

If you’ve never seen the original video here it is:

Now here is Hunter and Mylee’s version.

I think they did a great job.

Along with the email from Tom Reese this morning was an email from my friend and long time Rockies fan Robert Harmon. It was a short email stating that he and Bennie were ok and he included a few pictures of what was left of his VW bus affectionately known as”Jim Morrison”.

What now Robert, a rental car for the trip to Tucson for Spring Training?..Glad you and Bennie are ok. That was scary.

FYI- I can legally marry people in the State of Colorado. I’ve got two under my belt and they’re both still married.

How cool would it be to marry someone at Coors Field this season?

Who wants to be the first to get married by the Rockpile Ranter during a baseball game? Thanks for your click…D The Rockpile Ranter

The whole theme for the basketball game tonight was “The 80’s”. So the first 5000 fans received what they call “80’s sunglasses”. You know, the ones you used to wear with your OP Shorts (Ocean Pacific) back in the day. If your too young google it.

Above is a shot of Hunter and I modeling them for you. Hunter is holding the T-Shirt I caught as they were tossing them out.

It’s a T-Shirt to plug Chauncey Billups for the All-Star Team. See, I have finally found another use for my baseball snagging skills. I can adapt them for use in other sports. I love getting free crap at a game. I religiously save everything that I get from any sporting event.

There was a pretty good size line to get inside, I’m not sure if it was the 80’s sunglasses or Vanilla Ice that was bringing in lines of this size in the snow…Probably the cheap sunglasses. Ok, to give you some reference/history.

Below is Robbie Van Winkle’s original video of “Ice, Ice, Baby”.

Don’t cheat now, you have to watch this one first. Come on,…just play along.

It’s a blast from the past 🙂

Now that you’ve seen the real one, you’ve got to see Jim Carey’s rendition of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”. Be careful you might need a diaper for this one.

Finally, here’s a much older and mature Vanilla Ice rockin the halftime show at the Nuggets/Hornets game last night.

He started out with his version of “Play that funky music white boy” which was a flop for him back in the day, then he somewhat smoothly transitioned into his claim to fame “Ice, Ice, Baby.

I could tear this guy apart. So many things about him are just wrong. But, it’s a new year and I going to look at it like the dude is just trying to support his wife and two kids.

I’m sure to hear him tell it he’s just touring now as some sort of “healing process” that wanna be famous rappers go through,..whatever. I understand, everybody gotta make a living.

Here’s some video I shot of the Nuggets practicing before the game.

This game had a few ups and downs. The Nuggets led by as much as 26 points but they got lazy and let the Hornets make up all of that distance by the 4th period.

At one point in the 4th, the Hornets surpassed the Nuggets and were ahead by 3 points.

Had the Nuggets lost this game, they would have set a record for being the most points up on a team and then losing the game. Not a record I wanted to witness.

The previous record was 23 points. Thankfully that didnt happen.

Below is my picture show from the basketball game,…Enjoy

First is Hunter’s autographed picture of the Denver Nuggets Cheerleaders. I do believe he enjoyed meeting all of them. A shot of FSN Analyst and play-by-play guy Scott Hastings (aka Sup), and Chris Marlowe.

Hastings is an 11 year NBA veteran and was a member of the 1989 League Champion Detroit Pistons. Hastings finished his career as a Denver Nugget (1991-93). This guy is great, he signed an old skool picture that I found of him for me backstage last season after a game.

I printed two of the pictures just in case he wanted one. When I offered, he said “sure, thanks”. Here’s the picture he autographed for me last year. Here’s a shot of Sup nailing a three-pointer. The dude still got some game.

I’m going to email him this picture and see if he remembers me from last season. I’ll enclose a link to this entry and maybe he and Big Alfred Williams (former Denver Bronco, Superbowl years and his co-host on their talk radio program “Scott and Al, its off the hook”) would be willing to check out the Rockpile Rant.

Even better, it would be cool if they could possibly give us some radio love as we head out in the Mobile Blogging Unit for Rockies spring training?

I’ll let you know if they respond back to me.

Cool Note: Scott Hastings is believed to be the only person in existance to possess two Super Bowl rings and an NBA Championship ring.

Thanks Mr. Hastings..Hope you liked the picture. Tell Al I said hey.

Here is Chauncey Billups. He has my vote for the All-Star team. Renaldo Balkman K-Mart, Melo and Chucky Atkins Nene and Melo Kleiza holding his balls Some dunking skills more and more Kleiza and Chauncey with Miss America in the Background..No really it is. She sang our National Anthem. She did pretty good, she only F’ed up in one spot. Here she is with her own Police Officer and George Karl A shot of coach Karl as she’s walking away.The game was about to start so we headed back to our “real seats” and this was our view. The score at the beginning of the 4th.

As I mentioned earlier the Nuggets had a huge lead for most of the night, but Hornet’s Chris Paul scored 30 points and had 11 assist. David West also helped out with his 21 points. Both these dudes came up huge for the Hornets and by the last few minutes of the 4th things were getting way too interesting for a game we had in the bag.

In the end Carmello Anthony nailed the deciding shot. He did the same thing on Friday night with a three-pointer against Oklahoma City. The Nuggets zap the Hornets and win this one 105-100 bringing an end to the Hornets four-game winning streak.

Thanks for all of your input in the comments section of this blog.

I’m glad that you guys/gals feel comfortable enough with me to share your thoughts and feelings here at the Rant. I reall dig being able to discuss with people what I’ve written.

To quote the late great Mitch Hedberg,

“Alcoholism is a disease but it’s the only the disease you can get yelled at for having. Damnit Otto you’re an alcoholic. Damnit Otto you have lupus. One of these doesn’t sound right”.

Here’s a video clip of the late Mitch Hedberg’s stand up Comedy. He reminds me of my late High School friend Brian (RIP buddy) ….D

1/1/09Hope everyone had an awesome New Years Eve, I went to bed early but we let the kids stay up as late as they wanted. Neither of them made it midnight.I woke up and stretched really good this morning, ate a banana and a yogurt for breakfast.

You have to start somewhere, and this is as good a starting point as any. I’m 6’1 195 and I plan to use my excess energy from not smoking to drop 10 lbs before spring training.

I’m still in decent shape at 195, but I have this sexy image I have to uphold and I don’t want to let anyone down. My entire family has the pot belly gene and there are things down there want to always be able to see.

Besides, 185 is a good baseball snaggin weight.

I couldn’t have been more ecstatic about watching the startup of the MLB Network. As luck would have it, Comcast made sure that didn’t happen.

I guess I figured the MLB channel would be free with what we pay Comcast for cable each month. Well 4:00 pm rolled around and I was faced with the realization that it wasn’t.

So I jumped on the phone to Comcast and was informed that I would have to purchase the Encore package which was $5.00 more a month. No problem, she said is should come on shortly and I hung up. Iwaited, and waited and nothing happened.

Now it’s close to 5:00 pm and I’m getting pissed, so I call Comcast back and I’m told by another customer service rep that it’s not the Encore package that I need upgrade to it’s a different sports package.

So another 45 minutes drifts by while I’m waiting on the phone to get this all set up. Eventually the dude and I part ways with me in front of my TV waiting for the MLB channel to pop on.

The MLB Network finally did come on about 6:30pm. In the end I had to upgrade my cable plan, but it only costs me $3.00 more a month. I missed the first 2.5 hours, that blows.

The Bob Costas interview with Don Larson and Yogi Berra was really cool. Especially after getting to see part of the classic Yankees/Dodgers World Series no-hitter.

I let/made my kids watch some of it. I told them someday in the future people would be watching video of the games that we attended in color and wondering why they’re not three dimensional.

I don’t watch a hell of a lot of TV unless it’s baseball, basketball, or football. Even then it’s only Colorado teams.

But it’s nice to know the MLB Network is there when “I” need it, kind of like a spare tire or that Powerbar I keep in my glove box.

Here are some of my Suggestions for the MLB Network.

1. During the Hot Stove segments, take 30 seconds and highlight a different MLBlogger. Increased traffic to our blogs from the exposure is essentially more hits to MLB’s website right? It’s a win/win situation. Or how about using random blogs for the background of Hot Stove?

2. Have random contests here on MLBlogs.com with prizes such as being in a MLB Network TV commercial or 5 second shout out for the winners home team. This group of bloggers loves competition. I’d love to win a contest and get 5 seconds on MLB TV, get to stand there in full Ranter uniform and scream “Rockies are number one baby” whether they are or not. That’s the standard line right?

3. I like the spring training thing they’re doing, 30 teams in 30 days. It’s a great idea, sounds familiar? I’m sure there will be MLBloggers all over the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues in Feb/March. The MLB Network could give us some love down there.

I’ve got lots of great ideas, but it’s only the first day and I don’t want to seem like I’m being overly critical or demanding 🙂

I liked what I saw, congratulations on the first day of what I hope will become the best channel on TV…D